Life Right Now

Two weeks ago, we moved out of our starter home and into our family home. It's bittersweet. On two separate occasions I burst into tears over the loss of our little house on Whitewater Road.

Some things we will miss:

• It is totally updated
• We were so proud of the backyard and all our hard work out there
• The garage is connected to the house and gave us easy access off of the kitchen
• It was our first home - Brian proposed to me in that house, we came home from our honeymoon to that house, found out we were going to be parents in that house, held countless get-togethers and made tons of memories there

While we will always love our first home, we had to say goodbye and embrace the next step in our lives.

We have officially moved into our new home. We had help from both our families who loaded up a U-haul and moved us just a few miles away. We really can't thank them enough for helping us move and clean the place up. We also can't thank some of our friends enough for the meals! That has been awesome to not have to cook :)

Unfortunately, when we got the keys to our house, we were a little overwhelmed over the amount of work our new house needs. Every room needs paint... not just on the wall, but also the mustard-colored trim that seems to cover every square inch of the house and the yellow-y ceilings and closets. Of course, we knew this going in, but on moving day, the work became a reality. To paint most of the rooms, we will have to remove roll after roll of wallpaper. And I won't even get into the amount of work in the kitchen. We know it has loads of potential, but in the beginning it's hard to accept the fact that it will take years to get to that point. We look forward to the day when our friends and family want to drop by and we do not have to preface with "Please excuse the boxes... the ugly wallpaper... the half painted room...."

Currently, we are living amongst boxes, drop cloths, paint cans, and cleaning products. There is constantly something to do. Not a lot of relaxing going on over here. The first week in our new home we were sore, tired, cranky, and overall, just exhausted. We FINALLY moved into our master bedroom this past week, and we love it. It really helped us to have some feeling of accomplishment with our new house, and one room out of the way. Speaking of which, I am so proud of Brian. He has remained patient and always encourages me to rest, drink water and take breaks from unpacking. He constantly is watching out for me and I appreciate that more than he knows.

The next house post, I'll show you before and after pics of our master bedroom and bathroom and a break down of what we did. Let's just say it is turning into my DREAM bedroom!!! I love it so much and love having a grown up retreat at the end of the day :)

32 Weeks, Doc Appt & Maternity Pics

Sorry I'm a little late, but the baby is the size of a large jicama!

This week, he weighs 3.75 pounds and is about 16.7 inches long. I'm supposed to gain about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to the baby. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth. Here is what he looks like:

As for me, this has probably been one of the toughest weeks of pregnancy. I just haven't felt great. I'm super uncomfortable, not getting any sleep at night, I feel huge, and I have an insane amount of swelling. My legs and ankles are gross. Gone are the days of pregnancy being fun :( But at least that means I am closer to meeting my little boy!

I don't have a pic to post this week, because we actually had my friend Candice take some professional pics of us downtown at the Peabody this weekend :) I may take one with my camera tonight and post one that matches the others for Preston's baby book. When I get the photos from Candice, I'll post a link to them so you can see.

32 down, 8 to go!

Christmas List

This year, we are kind of skipping Christmas. Of course we'll celebrate with family and friends, but we are not putting up decorations in the new house because there is so much other stuff to do in getting ready for little Preston. Since there isn't much holiday celebrating going on at our home, I decided to follow in the footsteps of a few of my friends who blog and put together a Christmas wish list. Maybe I could even get Brian to do the same? ;)

1. A brushed nickel Hunter fan for our new master bedroom

Kensington by Hunter

2. fresh citron de vigne

3. Anything breastfeeding related. Okay, this one is a little weird, but truthfully if I am going to do this, I feel like I need the gear. A nursing cover, pump, storage bags, etc. There is a lot of gear that comes with breastfeeding!

nursing cover from Giggle

4. Pandora "P" charm for me to add on to my bracelet

5. The gift that keeps on giving.... gift cards! Since we have so much work to do on the house, it would be nice to have a few from select retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Ace Hardware. All those expenses you don't always plan for ADD UP.

31 Weeks

So after the craziest week ever (more on that later) we are finally able to take and post a belly pic :) Here we are at 31 weeks! Preston is the size of four naval oranges.

Here is what he looks like in there:

This week, he is having a major growth spurt. He is now over 16 inches long, and weighs about 3.3 pounds. He can move his head from side to side and his body is beginning to fatten up. He moves like crazy and keeps me up at night. While it's pretty uncomfortable, I like knowing that he is fine and happy moving and kicking around.

As for me, I am definitely experiencing a lot more swelling. Most days I can't wear my engagement ring :( Thankfully, my wedding band still fits. I am feeling some small BH contractions every now and then, but nothing major.

Here I am at 31 weeks and 2 days:

31 down, 9 to go!

30 Weeks

We're 30 weeks... what a milestone! This week, the baby is the size of a head of cabbage, weighing in at almost 3 pounds.

And here is what he looks like:

This week, his eyes continue to develop. When he's born, his vision will be 20/400 which means he will only be able to make out objects a few inches from his face.

As for me, I am starting to feel much more pregnant. A few of those 1st trimester symptoms are coming back and my heartburn is awful. I wake up at 3 a.m. barely able to breathe it is so bad. I don't like taking medicine while pregnant, but my doctor urged me to start a more powerful anti-acid and that seems to be helping. I have also been pretty fortunate so far to not have any crazy mood swings, but here lately, I am finding myself becoming more hormonal. I don't knowif it's stress related with everything we have going on as well, but I know that stress + 3rd trimester hormones = poor Brian. I hope he realizes I love him and am just not always myself lately. I am also starting to have some fears about labor and delivery. We have our class coming up soon, so hopefully that will ease them. Actually, it will probably make me more scared to know ALL the details!

Here I am at 30 weeks:


30 down, 10 to go!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is my husband's favorite holiday. I love being with him on Thanksgiving because he is so funny to watch! The food, the football, the family... he loves every minute of it. This year, we have so much to be thankful for it is overwhelming! God blessing us with a healthy pregnancy and baby, a new home for him to grow up in, our jobs and successes at work, and family and friends who couldn't be more supportive and happy for us. I have been looking forward to this Thanksgiving for a few reasons... it is the last Thanksgiving with just us and Brother, it marks 30 weeks of pregnancy, and we were able to spend it with both our families.

Wednesday we drove down to Alabama to my family's farmhouse where my family has always spent Thanksgiving. It was so great to spend some quality time with my grandparents, aunt, my parents, and my brother Joe. We missed Mark, because he was stuck in Memphis working. Here we are on the dirt road that leads to the house.

We were lucky this year because we got to eat two Thanksgiving meals! The first at about 11 a.m. on Thursday at the farm. We drove back to Memphis and ate with the entire Fields clan around 5 p.m. Needless to say, we were totally stuffed. Here with are with the Brian's immediate family.

We are so thankful for the blessings in our life!

Preston's Nursery: Chapter 2

Once we get moved in to the new house, I'll post a floor plan of his room and closet for you to see. But just because we are moving, doesn't mean that work on his room has stalled :) Here's what we have been up to.

I blogged a while back about a trip to Atlanta we took in September. We went to Ikea and found some GREAT stuff for Preston's nursery, including his crib! We went with the Sniglar, found here. I read up on it before our trip and the crib had good reviews. I wanted something simple and didn't want to spend a lot of money for something he will sleep in a couple years. Obviously, safety was a priority too, and it received good reviews on safety. Our plan was to paint it white. When we got home to Memphis, Brian got to work.

Ikea directions are pretty interesting. No words, just pictures. Hopefully we aren't idiots and can figure this out.

Here's my cute husband unloading the box in the backyard.

For the crib paint, I read up on the safest, low-odor spray paint for cribs and all signs pointed to Krylon H2O Latex paint. As Brian began to apply the first coat, we realized that this stuff was not going to work. It was sooo runny... not substantial enough for what we needed. Cribs are hard to paint because of all the small spindles. Brian had to go back and sand down some of the run marks and then we went with a safe paint applied with a paint brush to cover the crib. It looks much better now!

Did I mention that we got all this stuff at our most favorite hardware store, Ace? We have one down the street from our house and it is seriously the best store ever. While we were there picking up the stuff for the crib, we decided to go ahead and grab the paint color for P's room. We went with Gray Horse by Benjamin Moore.

Ben Moore has a whole line of low-VOC and VOC free paints and because we are first-time parents and probably a little over the top, we went with VOC free. Of course, anytime you add paint color in with the original paint it adds a small amount of VOCs, but this is the best we can do. Plus, using this paint, I can help paint his nursery too! And, since we will be painting very soon before Preston is set to arrive, we wanted to make sure there was no paint smell when we brought him home from the hospital.

Sorry, no "after" pictures. Those will have to wait!!!! ;)